Recall effort unites the community

In his rebuttal to the recall effort, Mayor Filner missed pointing out several of his achievements while in office. By forcing a recall election, he’s uniting the community and inspiring the volunteer spirit as San Diegans join together to kick him out of office. And as the cash donations flow in, some of the petition circulators may get paid for their work, thus creating new jobs.

Martin V. Hippie

San Diego

Farmers pay close attention to water use

Regarding the Aug. 12 letter by Milton N. Burgess, “Farmers must pay higher water prices,” he is right to monitor water use. However, it is important to clarify some of his assumptions.

County farmers are among the most diligent in monitoring water use. Local agriculture has cut back 50 percent on water consumption over the past seven years. Farmers use 9 percent of total water availability for the county, while nonagricultural outside landscape uses 30 percent. The increase in wine grape production during 2012 is a direct result of replacing higher-water-use crops with those that use substantially less.

Those farmers who do use available discounts agree to sacrifice reliability during drought shortages or emergency cutbacks. Farmers are the fifth-largest contributor to the economy in the county, at $1.7 billion in year production. All water users must work together toward water sustainability.

Julie Walker

San Diego County Farm Bureau President

Immigration and U.S. population growth

The Aug. 16 op-ed by Yeh Ling-Ling, “U.S. population needs to be stabilized,” highlights a very serious problem. We have more than 300 million people in the United States. We are full. All our population growth is from immigration. Our birth rate is at 2.0. We now admit 150,000 per year. This does not account for undocumented immigrants. The government wants to increase that to 250,000, which will give us 900 million people in a century. We cannot sustain these numbers.

More people means more air pollution from more cars and more traffic. More sewage into the ocean. More land fill. An increase in building to provide homes and work places, leaving less open space. We only have so much wilderness for animals to live. We have to share that space and leave them a livable habitat. We need to have a moratorium on immigration except for immediate family to bring the number down to 300 million population. Then we need to go back to our original immigration numbers of 50,000 a year.

Todd Gilbert

North Park

Military vets deserve good retirement

As the Pentagon announces that military retirement options might change, this brings bad news for service personnel of the future. It is true that current military retirement options are excellent, but what could occur is that we would not get the best and finest to serve.

Military retirees have all been stand-up people, and they serve our country in peace and war. Military retirees deserve all that is possible.